Business Intelligence Journal | Vol. 18, No. 3TDWI Member Exclusive

September 16, 2013

When you boil it all down, business intelligence is about turning data into information
to support business decision making. In this issue of the Business Intelligence
Journal, we explore a variety of facets of data and how it’s managed.

Senior editor Hugh J. Watson and Olivera Marjanovic look at four generations of
decision support data management: from decision support systems and enterprise
data warehouses to real-time data warehousing and big data.

Troy Hiltbrand shows us how data can drive dynamic decision making. He
examines how flexible, dynamic pricing on a high-occupancy vehicle lane in
Virginia assesses—in real time—the situational facets of supply and demand to find
the optimum toll to keep traffic moving and maximize revenue.

Using real-time data need not be restricted to new applications. Fiona Oliver offers
one real-time data warehousing solution for legacy operational systems in which the
usual approaches cannot be applied.

Organizations have it relatively easy with structured data. Using real-world
examples, Sundar Varadarajan and Soundarapandian explain how a few enhancements
can significantly improve the accuracy of text analysis of unstructured data.

Sourabh Mukherjee turns our attention to a familiar data management discipline:
master data management. The author takes a step back from current techniques to
look at the why, how, and what of MDM and offers fresh insights about the practice,
especially in light of emerging technologies.

Part of managing data is keeping it contained. Paul Staelin looks at the rationale for,
and the blueprint of, an architecture that helps IT regain control of data (including
new sources of data) while enabling self-service BI.

Dashboards are a popular tool for displaying data graphically. Linda L. Briggs looks
at how a U.K.-based tech recruitment firm provided a new level of visibility directly
to its consumers to help differentiate the company from competitors and retain its
existing clients.

Finally, our Experts’ Perspective column asks Jill Dyché, Fern Halper, and James
Taylor for their wisdom about the current BI scene, and our annual TDWI Best
Practices Award winners are profiled.